Derrick Rose signed a one-year minimum contract with the Minnesota Timberwolves this offseason after he landed back with his old Bulls coach, Tom Thibodeau. Rose ended up on the Wolves at the end of last season folling a poor run in Cleveland that saw him get traded to Utah and subsequently waived.
It’s been years since Rose was one of the league’s top players, but he remains one of the few NBA athletes to continue to have a signature sneaker, as the adidas DRose 9 dropped back in July. Rose’s sneaker is no longer among the most popular in the United States, but as ESPN’s Nick DePaula explained in a recent feature, his massive presence and success in China is why he’s tracking to be the eighth player in league history to have 10 consecutive signature sneakers with one company.
According to DePaula, a staggering 70 percent of the sales of Rose’s line come from China. But given the gigantic size of the Chinese sneaker market it’s well worth it for adidas to continue producing the DRose signatures. Next year, when the DRose 10 hits stores, it won’t be alone as adidas will begin releasing retros from Rose’s line as well.
The DRose 1.5, the sneaker he wore during his MVP season, will be the first of his line to get a retro release next year, per DePaula, and it will first hit stores in Chicago Bulls colors.
Whether the retro Roses do well in the U.S. or not won’t make or break the line, as it’s clearly the power of the overseas market in China that drives the Rose line to success. It will assuredly be a hit there and, likely, have some mild success in the States, particularly with Bulls fans. For anyone wondering why players are constantly doing summer trips to China and elsewhere in Asia on sneaker brand tours, you don’t need to look any further than Rose, who’s managed to parlay his massive celebrity there into a continued run of success with his sneakers that have otherwise tapered off in terms of popularity domestically.
